Head of Merchandise Planning

Head of Merchandise Planning

Hybrid | Handforth Support Office

We're all for pets. At Pets at Home, we're passionate about pets and the people who love them. Our purpose is simple: to create a better world for pets and the people who love them. From the products we stock to the services we provide, everything we do is focused on making pet care easier, better and more rewarding for our customers.

We're looking for a strategic, commercially minded Head of Merchandise Planning to join our Commercial Leadership Team and play a pivotal role in delivering against our ambitious growth plans.

This is an opportunity to shape the future of planning at Pets, building capability, driving commercial performance and ensuring we have the right products, in the right place, at the right time.

About the role

As Head of Merchandise Planning, you'll lead our planning function and translate commercial strategy into robust sales, inventory, availability and cash plans.

Working closely with Category Directors, Heads of Category and Buying teams, you'll ensure stock investment is optimised, customer demand is met and commercial opportunities are maximised. You'll bring insight, challenge and strategic thinking to decision making, helping the business balance growth, profitability and customer satisfaction.

As a member of the Commercial Leadership Team, you'll play a key role in developing a best-in-class planning capability, embedding planning excellence and supporting the ongoing evolution of our commercial operating model.

What you'll be doing

Lead and develop the Merchandise Planning function

• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing Merchandise Planning team.
• Define and deliver the merchandise planning strategy aligned to business goals.
• Establish clear planning standards, governance and ways of working.
• Build organisational capability through coaching, succession planning and talent development.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, curiosity and continuous improvement.

Drive commercial performance

• Develop and oversee category sales, stock, margin and cash plans.
• Deliver key commercial KPIs including sales, profit, availability, stock turn and markdown performance.
• Identify risks and opportunities, implementing timely interventions where required.
• Challenge and influence category strategies to maximise performance.
• Provide strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders using data-driven insights.

Optimise inventory and availability

• Own the inventory strategy across the business.
• Balance stock investment with excellent customer availability.
• Lead forecasting, replenishment and open-to-buy planning processes.
• Improve stock productivity and working capital efficiency.
• Manage seasonal, promotional and new product inventory risks.

Build strong commercial partnerships

• Act as the senior planning partner to Category Directors, Heads of Category and Buying teams.
• Collaborate closely with Supply Chain, Finance, Retail Operations, Digital & Ecommerce, Data & Insight and Asia Sourcing teams.
• Ensure alignment between commercial objectives and operational execution.
• Influence business decisions through analysis, insight and commercial expertise.

Champion planning excellence

• Promote a data-led planning culture across the Commercial function.
• Drive improvements in forecasting accuracy and planning effectiveness.
• Enhance reporting, analytics and business insight capabilities.
• Identify growth opportunities through customer, market and performance data.
• Develop planning capability through improved tools, systems and processes.

Support transformation and continuous improvement

• Lead planning-related workstreams within the Commercial Excellence Programme.
• Simplify processes and improve planning efficiency.
• Champion best-practice planning tools and methodologies.
• Improve the speed, quality and accuracy of decision making across the business.
• Support the ongoing evolution of our commercial operating model.

About you

You'll be a highly commercial leader with a passion for turning insight into action and helping teams make better decisions.

You'll bring:

• Significant senior merchandise planning leadership experience within retail or a consumer-led business.
• Strong commercial, financial and analytical capability.
• Extensive experience across forecasting, inventory management, stock productivity and open-to-buy planning.
• A proven ability to connect planning decisions to sales, profit, inventory, cash and customer outcomes.
• Experience working closely with Category, Supply Chain, Finance, Retail Operations, Digital & Ecommerce and Data teams.
• Strong people leadership skills, with a track record of developing high-performing teams.
• Experience improving processes, systems, tools and ways of working.
• The confidence to influence senior stakeholders and translate complex data into clear recommendations.

Why join Pets at Home?

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape how one of the UK's most loved retailers plans, invests and grows.

You'll join a business with a clear purpose, ambitious plans and a culture built on collaboration, care and continuous improvement. In return, you'll have the opportunity to make a visible impact, develop talented teams and influence key commercial decisions across the organisation.

At Pets at Home, we believe everyone deserves to feel welcome, valued and able to be themselves.

Pets just see people. They aren't biased and they don't discriminate. We take our inspiration from pets and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where diversity is celebrated and everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and perspectives because we know diverse teams make us stronger.

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